Opinions - Most Accurate $500 ish 22LR rifle

[Tac-O]

I saw a CZ 457 Royale in store recently that had a beautiful fiddleback stock. Wish I would have bought it!

 

[Haas71]

My 541t is more a sporter weight barrel. Is there an actual designation of a 541s and 541t with a heavy barrel?

 

[javman]

541 THB

 

[D2wing]

My 541t is more a sporter weight barrel. Is there an actual designation of a 541s and 541t with a heavy barrel?

There are forums dedicated to rimfires, Rimfire Central has a section for most brands as well as general information.

 

[Orange Dust]

A cz457mtr shoots pretty good. Mine was under an inch @100 and about 2-1/2 @200. Couldn't leave well enough alone. Added trigger spring and Boyds pro varmint with aluminum pillars and bedded it. Haven't had the chance to shoot it and see if I improved it or not. Hope I did, they are a bugger to bed.

 

[emp1953]

I only have semi auto 22's but have a ton of ammo and thinking about getting a bolt gun for range practice to save my target run's barrel for mostly matches and to save components/cost. I could pay for a $500 gun inside of 6 months of shooting.

I'm looking for a full sized bolt 22lr with as good of accuracy as $500 will buy and a decent trigger.

I could put a barrel and trigger on one of my 10/22's but would rather have a bolt gun.

Note I already have a good scope to use.

Tikka T1X MTR. Amazingly accurate with every "quality" brand of ammo I put through it. At one range session, at 50 yds I had to put stickers over bullet holes in the target to prove that I wasn't missing the target. Many shots were going in the same hole. As smooth as the center fire Tikka's. Mine has a wood stock and wood to metal work is really nice. I think the newer rifles have composite stocks.

 

[dgr416]

I put a bx ruger trigger on my 1022 and starting shooting dime sized groups at 50 yards with my factory sporter 1022.It was the trigger that made me shoot not so good .I used the same cheap cci and rem regular ammo too .I did put a crossbow scope on it with a dot site that works awesome .The 1022 spotter is hard to beat and easy to carry .I had a heavy barrel target model and I couldn't hunt far with it .I even have a folding stock on my .I was super surprised .I also totally took apart the bolt and super cleaned that rifle like new .I just bought another ruger 1022 and will put a new trigger in it too .

 

[vortech347]

Update, I wound up buying a RPR. There are no Tikka's to be found and the CZ 457 American I found that I liked would have been about $100 more all in.

I've already used aluminum tape to bed the front block and the barrel, checked and torqued all the fasteners to spec and cleaned the bore and all surfaces. I was able to adjust the trigger to 1lb 13oz with only 1.5 turns out on the adjustment.

But I live in the middle of this winter storm issue in Texas so won't get to go shoot it for a few more days.

I have several different kinds of ammo to test and a bunch of 10 round rotary mags from my 10/22's so I decided to give the Ruger a try.

Thanks for all the posts and recommendations.

 

[D2wing]

Glad you found one you like, I haven't seen much on them, so pics and a range report would be nice when you can. I have a Ruger RAR in 22 mag. that shoots really well for a 22 mag so I think it might be great. Sorry about all the trouble you have in Texas. I hope you are safe and warm.

 

[vortech347]

There are multiple YT videos and reviews. It will be a while before I get a chance to shoot it but the reviews helped me decide it was worth buying.

 

[vortech347]

First range report. Was able to make it to the range yesterday. I neglected to take pics but will just say I like it.

You need a scope with a lot of travel to deal with the 30moa rail. A buddy bought one and put a VX3 on it and he could not dial down enough. Shot 5" high at 100.

I put a SWFA SS 10x42 and was able to dial down enough.

I shot several different types of ammo.

A really old Remington bucket of bullets - absolute garbage. 4" at 50yds.

CCI Stingers - 1550fps and good accuracy. But, very hard to chamber so I won't shoot them in it again. The chamber is a little too tight for stingers.

CCI mini mags - seemed to shoot good. I didn't measure groups or keep good track.

CCI standard velocity - these shot quite well. We had some gusty wind so it was around 2" at 100 but I think these will shoot on a calm day.

Federal Auto match - another good one - similar to the CCI std.

Federal blue box 40gr. The regular stuff shot well, too.

So far I like the gun and it's promising. I may put a higher mag scope on because 22 holes are hard to see at 100yds with it.

When the weather and time allows I plan to do a better test and find the best ammo the gun likes.

It definitely makes you work on your shooting. The light weight and 2lb trigger will be good to work on my shooting technique

 

[JMW67]

Update, I wound up buying a RPR. There are no Tikka's to be found and the CZ 457 American I found that I liked would have been about $100 more all in.

I've already used aluminum tape to bed the front block and the barrel, checked and torqued all the fasteners to spec and cleaned the bore and all surfaces. I was able to adjust the trigger to 1lb 13oz with only 1.5 turns out on the adjustment.

But I live in the middle of this winter storm issue in Texas so won't get to go shoot it for a few more days.

I have several different kinds of ammo to test and a bunch of 10 round rotary mags from my 10/22's so I decided to give the Ruger a try.

Thanks for all the posts and recommendations.

sounds like you got a nice one timney makes a very good trigger for the rpr if you decide you need to go lighter

 

[vortech347]

The trigger is good enough. Help me work on my technique anyway.

7oz trigger on my target gun is surpising after shooting the 22. Lol.

 

[D2wing]

Nice. I think 50 yards is a more accurate measure of how accurate a 22 LR rimfire is. Conditions, sonic transition and variable ammo make 100 yards too far for evaluation in my opinion. Rifles designed to be target rifles have tight chambers and prefer quality target or standard ammo. Mostly subsonic. They won't chamber some ammo at all. Anyway thanks for the report and good shooting. Too bad ammo is so hard to come by now.
My rifles like CCI standard and Federal Automatch too. The expensive stuff is better depending on the rifle. The better the rifle the more it prefers the spendy stuff in my opinion. You don't know until you shoot it.